World Cup 2010: Other disappointing starts for England in the World Cup

England started their World Cup campaign with an underwhelming 1-1 draw
against the USA. But as the following list shows, a poor start does not
necessarily mean the kiss of death...

Seen it all before: England have a habit of performing poorly in their opening World Cup match - as in the 1-1 draw with Sweden in 2002Photo: REUTERS

10:48PM BST 12 Jun 2010

2002: England 1 Sweden 1

What happened: An unconvincing draw saw Sven-Goran Eriksson's England extend their winless record against his home country (now at 42 years and counting). Niclas Alexandersson equalised Sol Campbell's first-half header after a blunder by Danny Mills.

What happened next: A David Beckham penalty gave England a 1-0 win over Argentina, and England qualified second in their group. They eventually reached the quarter-finals, losing 2-1 to Brazil.

1990: England 1 Ireland 1

What happened: England went 1-0 up with an early Gary Lineker goal, but in a stupefyingly dull game, Kevin Sheedy's second-half equaliser saw the points shared.

What happened next: A drab draw with Morocco followed, but England came to life in their final group game, beating Poland 3-0 to qualify. Paraguay were despatched by the same scoreline before England lost 2-1 to Diego Maradona in teh quarter-finals.

1966: England 0 Uruguay 0

What happened: England started the World Cup disappointingly in front of a crowd of 87,000 at Wembley. Their weakness in front of goal may well have persuaded Alf Ramsey to take a look at a young striker called Geoff Hurst...